Tuesday, April 6, 2010

alchemical terms

bittern: solution of magnesium salts
black ash: impure sodium carbonate
black lead: graphite, an allotrope of carbon
brimstone: sulfur (S)
chalk: calcium carbonate (CaCO3, carbonate of lime, mild calcareous earth). Acid of chalk is carbon dioxide (CO2, carbonic acid, fixed air)
charcoal: either a charred carbonaceous material or its primary constituent, namely carbon. Lavoisier coined the term carbone (carbon) to distinguish the element from impure charred material; however, the distinction was not universally adopted right away.
cobalt. Named by the copper miners of the Hartz Mountains after the evil spirits the 'kobolds' which gave a false copper ore; despised because of its uselessness and unhealthiness (it was often found mixed with arsenic), and because it resembled silver but wasn't.
copper-nickel, named for another devil, because it looked like copper but wasn't-- our nickel.
cuprite. Red cuprous oxide ore.
fulminating gold. Made by adding ammonia to the auric hydroxide formed by precipitation by potash from metallic gold dissolved in aqua regis. Highly explosive when dry.
King's Yellow. A mixture of orpiment with white arsenic.

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